Chapter 20

Yay in the 20's! OK so basically Adrian is dead and it's been a month now. And we actually see the rest of Jacob's band for like the 2nd time ever.

Chapter 20

 

A month or so after that we had finished recording the album.  We decided to do one with a lot of very mournful sad songs, with few uplifting ones.  We needed a record that really capture the band at that time, and we all felt sad about Adrian’s death. 

          After work Jacob and Dakota invited me out to have lunch with them.  I wasn’t looking forward to it because I didn’t know Dakota all that well. 

          I followed them into the parking lot of an Eat ‘n Park.  I had been here a couple of times before so I knew their food wasn’t awful.  I walked over to their car and hugged both of them. 

“Hi, I’m Dakota.”  He stuck out his hand and I shook it, laughing.

“Melody.” 

“So are you ready to go in?” Jacob asked us.

“Yeah I’m pretty hungry.”

          They walked in ahead of me and got a table.  I sat down and opened the menu.

“So has anyone been here before?” Dakota asked.

“I have, but the last time was when I was young.”

“OK cool.” 

“So are we getting appetizers?” Jacob asked. 

          I perused the appetizer list. 

“The Spinach Artichoke Dip is pretty good.”

“OK.  Where’s our waiter?”

          Just then, a very pretty brunette walked over.  Her hair was in a ponytail and it bounced when she walked.  So she was super peppy.

“Hi, I’m Julie and I’ll be taking your order today.”  She said through her gum snapping. 

“OK, ugh.”  I said under my breath.

“We’ll take the spinach artichoke dip and 3 waters.”  Jacob answered.

“OK.”  She wrote it down and bounced away. 

“OK was she super annoying or what?”  Jacob asked.

“I agree, that was just ugh.”  I answered.

“She was cute.” Dakota said. 

          I rolled my eyes.  Of course he thought so.  Just then Jesse and a girl walked in the door.  My heart stopped when I saw them. 

“What’s wrong?”  Jacob turned around and saw him.  

“We can leave if you want to Mel.”  He looked concerned.

“No I’m fine.  We’re here, we’re going to eat.  Besides, we can’t go until Dakota gets Julie’s number.” 

“Yeah man.”  I laughed as Julie came back with our drinks. 

“Do you know what you’d like to eat yet?”

“Umm I’ll have the Super Burger,” answered Dakota.  “Extra Super.”  He winked at Julie and she laughed. 

“For you?”  She looked to Jacob.

“Ehh, the Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo.”

“OK. And you?”  She looked at me like she was bored.  How rude.

“A caramel latte, and a Grilled Chicken and Strawberry Salad.”  

“OK. That’ll be about 15 minutes.”

 She flitted to the kitchen and handed the cook our order.  Then of course she had to go wait on Jesse and his girl.  Ugh.

“So, has anyone done anything interesting lately?”

“Well, later Dakota and I are going to play some DnD.”

“What?”

“Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Isn’t that a nerd game?”

“Well yeah I guess.  But it’s a lot of fun.”

“OK…When are you playing?”

“Umm right after we leave here we’re gonna meet up with the rest of the boys.”

“Can I come?”

“Umm sure.”

“Well I don’t have anything else to do.”    

“OK. It might take a while to set up but sure.”

“Alright.  So what exactly is it?” 

          Jacob laughed.  Quite loudly I might add because Jesse looked over at our table.  I didn’t really notice until he walked over. 

“Hello.  How have you all been?”

“Just peachy.” Dakota answered.

“Melody I’m so sorry about your friend. It must have been terrible to see that.”

          Oh what an a*****e.  How dare he demean my relationship with Adrian.  However, I smiled. 

“Thank you. It was very hard.”

“Well if you ever need me I’m here for you.”

“That’s OK. I don’t need you.  I have a level 4 Cleric and a level 5 Fighter to back me up.  So bye.”

“What?”  He yelled back from his table. I just waved.

“Well you catch on fast.”

“Yeah well, it confused the hell out of him and made my day.”

“Evil.” Dakota said.  

          Julie came back with our food and my latte.  We ate it pretty quickly.  Partly just to get out of there, partly to get to our game.  As soon as we were done, Julie came back over asking us if we wanted any dessert. 

“Might as well get something to go; It’s gonna be a long game.  And I’m sure the boys would appreciate it.”  Dakota nodded.

          Julie handed us back some menus and gave us a few minutes to look them over. When she came back, I was all ready to order for us.  Boy, I was I seriously going to have to hit the gym after this.

“OK, so all of this dessert is to go.  We’ll take a whole Apple Pie, a Cherry, Lemon Meringue, Oreo Crème and Chocolate. All of those are entire pies.  Also 3 full orders of Smiley Cookies. And 2 whole molten lava cakes.  We will also take some honey buns, a loaf of raisin bread and 4 orders of Grilled Stickies.”

          Her hand flew across the page as she wrote it all down. 

“OK. It shouldn’t be too long.”

“OK thanks!”

“So, are you sure that you really want to go play?”

“Yeah.”

“OK just making sure. Because it will take you a while to be able to do everything, and get all the rules down and make a character.”

“OK that’s fine.  I don’t have anything else to do.”

         

          After a little while Julie brought us our bill and our desserts.  Dakota asked her for her number and she gave it to him.  We paid our bill, and left her a tip.  I followed them to Jacob’s apartment and walked the few flights up to his door.  He unlocked the door and we stepped inside.  The boys were already there and already set up. 

“Dakota and I share the apartment.”  

“Hey Brandon, Hey Zack.”

“Hey.” They said in unison. 

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to play!”

“Really?”

“Yeah.  The guys talked me into it over lunch.  So where are we?” 

“Well first you need to look over this, and make a character.  We’ll help as needed but we kind of left off in the middle of an encounter and Zack, I mean, Jelko, is being attacked by a giant crocodile.”

“OK I guess I’ll just read this and make my character.”

“OK.  Remember, need any help at all and I’m right here.”

“OK.”

 

2 hours later and I was ready to join the game. 

“OK well, we’ll have to meet you somewhere. Brandon, are we near a town?”

“You are.  However the town has a gate and guards.  It seems to be an Elven village.”

“OK, I am going to talk to the guard and see if we can come in.”

“OK, roll for me.” 

          This game was very dice heavy.  A little annoying, but whatever.  

“The guard says that you just missed curfew and will have to camp outside tonight.”    

“Oh damn.  I hate that.”

          I gestured Brandon to the other side of the room and whispered to him.  He nodded his head and thought.

“Yeah that could work I guess but I’m gonna need you to roll to see if you’re successful.”

“Got it.”

          So we went back over to the game.  I rolled a die, and was successful! Yay me! 

“OK, so you wake up and hear a slight noise.  You see feet beside you and sit up, startled.  You see an Eladrin woman standing above you, telling you to be quiet.”

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“Do you want a warm bed to sleep in or not?”

“What’s it gonna cost us?”

“Your silence.  Don’t say a word.”

          He nodded his assent and they packed.  We all climbed up the rope I had and jumped to the other side of the gate.  We walked a little ways ‘till we got to the local inn. 

“Hey!”  I called to the Tavern keeper.  We went way back so I knew him pretty well.

“You have some extra rooms’ sir?”  Jacob’s character asked.

“I have 2.  And they cost 5 gold coins a night.”

“We’ll take them for tonight.”  He handed the tavern keep 10 gold coins. 

“I can take ‘em to the rooms.” He threw me the keys and I beckoned for them to follow me. 

“So who do we thank for this?” ‘Jacob’ asked.

“Mezara. And you’re welcome.”

“I’m Legrar, this is Aragorn and that’s Jelko. Thank you for this.”

“No problem.”  I showed Legrar to the next room, one floor up.

“I hope this arrangement is OK.”

“It’s fine.  So why help us?”

“Let’s just say that I know what you’re friend is dealing with.  And that I might know a way out.”  With that I left and went to my own room.

          We played for like 7 more hours and almost got done with the adventure.  I finally decided to call it quits. 

“Is it OK if I crash here? I don’t feel like driving home.”

“Yeah that’s fine.  Let me get some blankets, and you know, make the couch visible.”

“OK.”  I turned to Zack and Brandon.  “Does either of you guys want any of this dessert?” We hadn’t really touched a lot of it.       

          They each took a couple of pies and left the Apple pie and some Grilled Stickies.  I would let Jake have the pie.  Apples were kind of his favorite fruit. 

          He finished making my bed and I thanked him. 

“I had fun today.”  He told me.

“Yeah me too.  Who knew that that game would be so fun?”

“Well we did, but now you know.” 

“Yeah I do.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”  I hugged him and lay down as he went to his room.  Spending the night probably wasn’t a good idea, but, not like I could leave now.  I drifted off to sleep after a few minutes, and of course dreamed of our fictional adventures. 

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think, honestly.